Things Fall Apart
by Her Sweetness
Summary: Ryou has been admitted to a prestigious psychiatric institute after his psychiatrist, Seto Kaiba, sees something disturbing in the boy. But the doctor's life is in danger as Ryou's counterpart grows ever hateful of the doctor's caring eyes on his lover.
1. Cherry Blossoms

Disclaimer: I don't own Yuugiou or Yu-Gi-Oh!

Her Sweetness: This is the sequel to A Few Small Repairs. I got hit with the writing bug… Actually, this story has been a long time coming but I just hadn't gotten around to it. Please review and tell me your thoughts.

* * *

Things Fall Apart

Chapter One

* * *

"_Why are you crying, Sugar?"_

"… _I'm feeling lonely," he shifted in the Darkness, keeping his hands on his knees securely. He whispered again, "I'm feeling lonely."_

_A smirk. "But I'm right here with you."_

_More sniffles. "M… Maybe I'm not lonely for you."_

_There was a pause and Death shook his head in mild amusement. The other boy sensed the pleasure surrounding his form and tensed his body. The Entity leant down and rested his head on the small, frail shoulder. _

"_You couldn't possibly be speaking of…?"_

"_Yes," he nodded, "I think I am."_

_A flash of white fangs and then Shadow consumed them both. A voice in the shades of eternal night murmured to deaf ears:_

_No, you're not._

* * *

The cherry blossoms look lovely this spring, thought Ryou Bakura. Funny that he did not know to which other spring he was comparing them to, this year's beautiful blossoms. Still, they looked lovely. 

The sun sparkled just over the tall skyscrapers across the street and even beyond that. Glares bounced off of the endless rows and columns of shiny windows and made it back to the window Ryou starred out of; but that didn't faze him. The rays only intensified the warm sensation one got when they looked into his melting brown eyes.

However, no one looked into his eyes here.

This place, this institution; he found that the people that walked by in the hallways, the doctors and the nurses and everyone else, they refused to look him in the eye. There was something unnerving about that but something calming as well. He would never have to look in their eyes either. As long as he remembered that fact, he could be okay with no eye-contact. He could be okay with it.

"Mr. Bakura." A hand was set on his shoulder but Ryou didn't jump. It was strange to him but no one—no matter how scary this place looked from certain angles—frightened him here. No one. But he had to keep telling himself that. He was taken away from the sun and the blossoms and turned up to see a man in a suit giving him a small reassuring smile.

Ryou sighed inwardly and lifted himself from his seat in the hallway and walked with the man down the empty corridor. The walls were a dull gray, the color matched his institution-issued jumpsuit which was a solid gray, no pockets or belt loops. He was even stripped of shoes or socks here unless, forced to walk on cold tiled floors unless, as he had observed, it was time to go into the garden in the back of the facility where the patients could stretch and enjoy the sun. They allowed no games to be played on the 3rd Floor, the one he resided on.

He had been at the Central Domino Psychiatric Institute for a little less than a week, five days to be exact. He remembered as he followed this man into the room he had visited for an hour everyday and sat down as the doctor closed the door behind the two of them. Ryou had been admitted to the Institute after only a few sessions with Dr. Seto Kaiba. All it took was a few hours and a few tests for the good doctor to see what was so clear to Ryou himself though, now, he was not exactly sure why it was clear.

He walked into the room like a sane person, hadn't he?

He sat down and smiled politely. Didn't shout, didn't flinch.

Ryou tilted his head as he remembered… that one flinch… just one.

It was when Dr. Seto Kaiba had been talking on their third session (before his admission to this _place_) that he had made that one little mistake, maybe even the defining mistake. There had been a series of murders in his neighborhood and when Ryou came in for their session that day, after the initial greeting, that had been the first thing that Dr. Seto Kaiba had addressed.

He had held up a picture of a youngish looking boy with spiked hair. "This is Yugi Motou, Ryou. Do you know him? He went to your school before his life ended."

Ryou had stared at the picture. "No, I don't know him," he said honestly. He remembered thinking what a strange hairstyle for a boy to have.

The doctor held up another picture, this time of a girl. "What about her? Her name is Tea. Tea Gardner. This girl was even in your class. She died the day before Yugi Motou."

"Why am I being asked this?"

"… Truthfully, the police requested me to ask you this. It's routine for anyone who had been in that area at the time. The cases are left unsolved and the families are riddled with grief."

Ryou nodded. "I'd like to help if I can."

Dr. Seto Kaiba smiled, his blue eyes gentle with Ryou.

"But," Ryou continued, "I can't remember that girl. I really don't pay too close attention to anyone at school. I'm sorry."

"Then what about this young man? He didn't go to your school but… well, take a look." He held up a photograph of a teenage boy, blond hair, tanned skin and lavender eyes that shot out of his face like lilac thunderbolts. Dr. Seto Kaiba lowered the picture so he could see Ryou's face and was just in time to see a flinch, a twitch of his left eye and suddenly, mutely, Ryou began to cry.

"Mr. Bakura? Ryou? What's wrong?"

Ryou's voice was not upset or bothered by his now flowing streams of tears. He looked at the picture and said, "No, I'm sorry, he doesn't ring a bell."

"Ryou, you're crying," the doctor said with some concern. He was young, only five or six years older than Ryou and he was still left with some compassion in him, not like most of the other psychiatrists in the building, stripped of anything more than scientific interest in patients.

"Am I?" Ryou touched his face and drew back a wet hand. "I didn't know that. I don't know why. I'm sorry."

"Don't be sorry."

The tears dropped to the cream colored carpet and made wet spots and microscopic thudding sounds. Ryou had grabbed some tissues from a box on the small table by his seat in the office. Before he was able to wipe his face, he glanced again at the picture of the boy and more tears came.

Not long after that session, he came to be a resident at the Institution. His transaction from his home to this place was fuzzy and he didn't feel like trying to remember it. But he remembered faintly men in blue and arguing between them and Dr. Seto Kaiba. He didn't understand it or even remember what it was about but he had a feeling that somehow Dr. Seto Kaiba had been kind.

Now, a little less than a week later, when the cherry blossoms were outside being bright and soft and gorgeous, he was back in this office again, back in the same seat, staring at the good doctor who sat behind his large mahogany desk. The light coming through the open windows nearly blinded him on his first day here but now he was used to it and learned a trick on how to avoid the glare.

He tilted his head a little and gave a smile.

"Hello, Dr. Seto Kaiba."

Dr. Kaiba smiled at him in return. "It isn't necessary to say my whole name, Ryou, I've told you that."

Ryou seemed to ignore this. "What shall we talk about today, doctor?"

"Anything you want. I've told you, you can be as open as you like here."

Ryou paused and looked away from the man. He watched the shadows of the light on the ground and suddenly turned to the doctor with a small frown on his face. "I can't think of anything to talk about." He paused and looked at the clock on the wall. "We have so much time left."

"You know, Ryou, I don't want you to think of our sessions as just time to be filled. Maybe you could think of our time together as a way to get emotions out. I know you don't talk to many people here. It must be frustrating to not be able to speak your mind to anyone."

"…"

"Ryou?"

"What if I don't have anything on my mind?" he asked quietly.

"You must."

"Why?"

"There's always something on the human mind."

"What makes you think I'm human?" he asked.

The doctor held back a smile. "Our tests have concluded that you are indeed human."

"I'm tired of the tests. When will they stop?"

"Currently, we're trying to see what your tolerance is for lithium and a few other medications. If anything hurts, please tell me and I will instruct the nurses to be more gentle."

"It doesn't hurt, it's just annoying."

"I'm sorry."

"I don't like so many people getting to see me naked."

Dr. Kaiba shook his head. "I wouldn't like that either but it's for medical purposes. They aren't judging your body or looking at it with any sexual desires, they have to make sure they don't give you something that you're allergic to or can't handle."

"How do you know?" he asked.

"Know what?"

"That they don't look at me with sexual desire."

"These are trained professionals, Ryou, they—"

"_You're_ a professional, doctor, and you still have sexual desires. A degree doesn't stop someone from lusting."

"You're right but I don't lust in the workplace."

"Why?"

"It's inappropriate."

"Why is it inappropriate, doctor? We're all humans here."

Dr. Kaiba could have sworn he heard a little humor in Ryou's voice and that was a first. He smiled although Ryou's expression remained placid and somewhat serious. The doctor said, "Because I'm trying to maintain a professional relationship with my patients and the staff. I'm trying to help people here and a physical relationship would get in the way of that. It's a conflict of interest. If I was romantic with one of the patients, say, then maybe because of our unprofessional relationship I would hold back on a treatment or prescription. Do you see?"

"Yes," Ryou said, absorbing this and simultaneously looking out of the window.

When their hour was over, Ryou was escorted out of the office by one of the security guards. Not roughly for with force because this was routine for all patients. With some of the other guests at the Institute, the ones who were admitted for violent crimes or who were just harmful in general, had to be escorted by two guards but Ryou supposed no one took him as much of a threat. He was, after all, so very thin and pale. How could he be dangerous?

His room was not far from Dr. Kaiba's office, only a short elevator ride and a hallway. His room was number 19 and the guard opened the door for him, let him in and then closed it. Ryou was not shocked or dismayed to hear the click of a lock. He turned to his empty room, only a bed with neat, gray sheets and a side table with a lamp and a window that was never allowed to open.

He leaned up against the door and smiled. "I'm here," he said.

"Welcome back," answered Death.


	2. Hush Little Baby

Her Sweetness: Well, here's chapter two. I'm really sorry it took so long but I just got a bit of inspiration and stuff so you know how it is… Hopefully people are still interested in this. I actually hope to make this a very dark fic, when that time comes, so maybe the people who do read it won't have wasted their time.

* * *

Things Fall Apart

Chapter Two

Ryou Bakura's cocoa-brown eyes deepened upon seeing his counterpart's florescent body laying on the uniform bed in the small room he now resided in. The light from the window came fluttering into the room, bringing more light than Death cared for or thought the room deserved, actually. When Ryou had come into the room, Death's eyes, which had been shut during Ryou's absence, shot open upon hearing the delicate footsteps and the sweet voice letting him know:

"I'm here."

Death answered, "Welcome back," and began to sit up.

Ryou shook his head as his look-alike began to sit up for him. Before he reached the edge of the bed, supposedly to come and greet the teenager, Ryou came over quickly and threw himself onto his double, sending them both back onto the bed. The covers and sheets on the bed, neatly arranged every morning by one of the orderlies, bounced up and astray around them and Death's hair sprayed out over the crisp pillow cover.

There was silence and happy sighs coming from Ryou as he nuzzled into the crook of the other's neck. But maybe happy wasn't the right word to describe the sighs. A better word would be relieved. Relieved to be out of Dr. Seto Kaiba's office and away from the guards and orderlies and the horrible smell of existence in the hallways. Of sickness, Death had said before, that awful smell of sickness, barely living.

Death let Ryou lay his head in the crock of his neck and breathe in his scent, the faint smell of apples, Ryou compared it to sometimes. Death didn't comment on that.

"How was it?"

"… Not well," Ryou said, lowering his eyelids.

"What did the doctor ask?"

"Not much… not this time, anyway. He only tried to start conversation. I replied to make the hour go by faster. It was light, nothing heavy." He shifted. "I wonder how long the light conversations will last."

"Hn."

"How long do you think they will last?" Ryou looked up.

"I don't know."

"Do you care?"

Death smiled. He gently held up Ryou under his arms, like a proud father would do to his baby son, and put him on the bed so that he could get up. Ryou watched as Death left the bed and went to the window with the bars on it, letting the light filter through in thick squares and onto Death's face. His chocolate-cherry eyes squinted in the light and he raised his hand in defense. But he never took his eyes away from the streets below; the cars going past and the people on the sidewalks only sparing the institution a passing glance, if that.

"Sugar…" He said carefully, eyes dilating. Some of the cherry blossom trees that decorated the lawns of the building could be seen from their window.

"Yes?"

Death turned to him suddenly. "What do you think you are here for?"

"…" Ryou said nothing. He thought for a moment and sat up, pushing himself back up against the pillow. There was only one on the bed. He thought some more, his eyes becoming vacant and he seemed to not be there for the moments he was silent. "I am…" he began, "not sure. I really don't know." Realization flashed behind his chocolate orbs. "I don't know how I even got here. I thought about that while I was in the waiting room. How did I get here? What am I here for?"

A splash of panic flowed into Ryou's voice. It wasn't bad and Death wasn't concerned, it had happened a few times since he had come here, he would wonder how he had arrived and what had led him here. He hid the smile that threatened to show. "Calm down, sugar."

"I—"

"Shh, now. Ask me later and I will tell you. Is that alright?"

Ryou's eyes that were on the verge of becoming wet blinked once and then twice and the impending tears were gone. He nodded silently. Death gave a quick nod back. It was imperative that Ryou not cry.

He took in a deep breath—Ryou did—and let it out as he fell foreword onto the bed, letting his knees bend and pulled them up against his chest, laying down in the fetal position, his eyes closing.

"I don't like the bars," Ryou said.

"I'm sorry for you, sugar."

Ryou paused. "Do you like the bars?"

"I don't mind them," he said and cracked a smile. "They remind me of your mind."

Death crossed the small space to the bed and crawled on top of Ryou's frail form, looming over him and Ryou stayed still with his eyes closed. Death looked up, eyes shaded by his silver hair at the small camera over the door that surveyed the entire room. He doubted that Ryou had noticed the thing being that it was so small and Ryou hardly ever paid attention to detail or much cared for his surroundings. But Death knew that the camera was always recording, always watching, and that there was always someone watching them in the controls room.

Watching Ryou, that is.

Death could not be detected, translucent as he was, by such basic technology. He shook his head thinking of how it must look when they—

His thoughts were interrupted by the smaller boy's form shifting beneath his. When Death looked down, he was looking into soft brown eyes and an expecting smile that said playfully, What are you waiting for?

Death answered with a darkening of his eyes and the look told him, Nothing, as he slid his thin fingers up the uniform gray shirt.

* * *

Dr. Seto Kaiba was sitting in his office thirty minutes later, the windows of his office wide open and the fresh sunlight flying throw it and onto the maroon-colored carpet. It barely hit the bare feet of a man who stared off to the side of the room, by a large plant next to a wastebasket. He was a pale man, half-balding and his dusty green eyes settled far away from the psychiatrist.

"Mr. Howell?"

The doctor's patient said nothing. Just kept staring.

Dr. Kaiba let out a little sigh and back in his chair. "Mr. Howell, our tests show that you are not in a catatonic state. Why wont you say something? To anyone? You've lived in this area for almost five years now, isn't that correct? And in that time, no one has _ever_ heard your voice. Why haven't you spoken?"

"…"

"Maybe you just don't have much to say, is that it? I can understand it and it's a good thing to try, actually, only speak when you have something to say. But have you not had something to say in five years?"

"…"

"You're not a mute."

"…" Mr. Howell looked up at the clock and then turned his gaze to Dr. Kaiba. The doctor tilted his head and then sighed heavily. He said, "Yes, yes, it's time for you to go."

The man got out of his seat and the door opened for him, a guard accompanying him back down to his room. The door shut in the doctor's face as he went to the door, attempting to follow Mr. Howell and the guard out. He rolled his eyes briefly and opened the door again, shutting it behind himself as he made his way down the narrow hallway. The secretary's desk was empty. This didn't surprise him.

'She's always taking off early,' he thought to himself as he walked down the crisp hallways with that smell that he barely recognized now. 'Someday I'm going to have to have another talk with that silly girl… No… maybe it's passed the time for talking.'

"Kaiba?"

He stopped and turned at the door that had opened beside him in the main third floor hallway. Stanley Radic, an older more experienced psychiatrist who kept his practice with the forth floor patients, had his hand on the doorknob and his tired brown eyes were starring into Kaiba's electric blue eyes. Kaiba turned to him. "Yes?"

"You should come in here and take a look at room 19's surveillance camera."

"Ryou Bakura," Kaiba said and followed Dr. Radic into the room, the door closing softly behind them.

A guard was sitting in a swivel chair in front of a wall of screens, all the rooms on the third floor. Some patients were sleeping, others were off in their own worlds were some of them resided and were kings and others resided and were prisoners. Kaiba's attention was directed towards the screen on the second row and there, on the bed in the room, was young Ryou Bakura, laying on his back with his hips in the air.

The picture of the camera was by no means crystal-clear but the people in the room, the two doctors and the guard, could certainly make out what was happening. There was no sound but Ryou was panting and the bed was bouncing a bit. Ryou's eyes were shut and he arched his back off the mattress. The covered were askew and a pillow had fallen to the floor, resting on it's side.

"What the…" Kaiba stopped in mid-swear.

The guard was shaking his head, a lilt of his lips threatening to reveal a smirk. "This has been going on for a while."

"Is this the first time?" Kaiba asked, his eyes not leaving the screen or the intensity of Ryou's mute screams.

"First time _I've_ seen but, hey, who knows. Usually, he sits on the bed and talks to himself and eventually falls asleep. He starts up as soon as he gets in the room. But this is the first time I've seen him pull this trick. If you can believe it, there was even foreplay."

Dr. Radic looked down at him with sharp eyes. "That's enough, Dillon."

He shrugged off the glare.

Kaiba watched through this little exchange and saw how Ryou's soft brown eyes opened a bit and how his cherry lips almost smiled. The bed continued to bounce. Ryou's uniform was on the floor, away from the pillow. The window was open. Light was on Ryou's perspiring body. More bouncing.

"Think he's lonely?" Dillon asked sarcastically.

"I said that's enough," Dr. Radic's sharpness in his tone was enough to finally make Dillon silence himself.

Ryou threw back his head and it seemed that he either screamed or moaned loudly. His body fell limp back to the bed. His eyes were closed and he pulled his legs together and tucked them under his body, curled up at the head of the bed. He lay still.

When Kaiba stood back from the screen, he caught Dr. Radic's eyes on him and the question they asked. Kaiba shook his head, he knew what that question was all too well. Dr. Radic had been wanting ever since Ryou came to the institution to have him move dup to the fourth floor, the _final _floor. Dr. Radic knew about the police and the questions and he knew about the day Ryou had cried when he was shown the picture of that boy. Kaiba knew what Dr. Radic thought but he had his own beliefs.

Without a word, Kaiba opened the door from the security room and continued to walk down the hallway. Like nothing had detained him.

* * *

Death leaned down over Ryou who was in the fetal position again on the bed. He smiled in what was, to Ryou, a comforting manner, but what would have been to anyone else beyond frightening. That smile to anyone else, any _sane_ person, would have screamed out in a fiery thirst: I am going to kill you _slowly_, yes, oh yes, oh yes yes yes yes…

When Ryou, saw that smile, he hear a soft lullaby:

Hush, little baby…

Don't say a word…

Ryou wanted to cry when he looked up at Death. The immense softness he saw in those blood-coated chocolate drops. The daggers that gleamed red said to him: No one cares for you as much as I. And no one ever has or will. Oh you poor beautiful boy, did I _hurt_ you?

The area between the teenager's legs felt like fire and searing pain. Ryou has guessed a while ago that was the feeling of passion. The thick, hot syrup of passion flowed down his legs and onto the bed coverlet. Ryou, without saying anything, answered those eyes with a no.

There was trust in the room that only Ryou could feel.

He closed his eyes and began to drift to sleep. Death came behind him and wrapped his arms around the younger boy's frail torso. The trust that Ryou had felt before going off into the sweet dreamland that Death had prepared for him was actually another feeling altogether and had anyone else been in that room, they would have smelt sex and decay.


End file.
